Oxfordshire rocket developer Reaction Engines (REL) has been awarded ￡1m by the British National Space Centre and ESA to develop a propulsion system for SKYLON, a proposed reusable spaceplane.rnThe funding will go toward demonstrating the core technologies for the so-called synergic air-breathing rocket engine (SABRE). This hybrid engine will use air when in the Earth's atmosphere and behave like a rocket engine when in space.rnIn air-breathing mode air is first cooled by a heat exchanger pre-cooler before being compressed and fed to the rocket engine to be burned with hydrogen fuel. When in rocket mode the hydrogen is burnt with liquid oxygen.
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